Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/406

This page needs to be proofread.

400


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[12 S. I. MAY 13, 1916.

To return for a moment to the group of lines to be transferred. Mr. Warde Fowler professes not to understand "sic regiatecta subibat." What is the objection to taking them as descriptive of the chief's custom? He would enter even the royal palace clad in his grisly lion's skin—i.e., he never laid it aside.

The Notes tempt to endless discussion; and not the least interesting are those which, with abundance of explanation and illustration, clear away common misapprehensions. Such are the remarks about the gates and "temple" of Janus, and about the error of taking Juno as the wife of Jupiter. A very instructive conjecture is that which sees in the Roman Triumphator and his apparel an adapted survival of the war-chariot and dress of an Etruscan chief, and derives the Jupiter of the Capitol from these, not these from the statue. As examples of that interpretative functioning of concentrated attention, we may mention the comments on

Te nemus Angitiæ, vitrea te Fucinus unda,
Te liquidi flevere lacus,

together with the appendix on Virgil's hemistichia, and the comments on " florentes " in the portrait of 'Camilla.

Upon Camilla Mr. Fowler seems to have gazed so long that he may be said to have fallen in love with her ; though, if it is less ardently admiring, his "visualization" of the several chiefs is at least equally vivid, and illustrated by learning as copious and as gracefully introduced.

We must also express our satisfaction at the two or three tributes which these pages contain to the learning and acumen of Henry Nettleship.

It has become a commonplace to speak of books as affording diversion from the anxieties of the war : and it is probable that by this time many people have perforce grown sadly nice and exacting as to this. Not every diversion proposed is effective. Therefore we would put on record our having found this little book the most invigorating and refreshing that has been in pur hands for many weeks. No doubt a predilection for Virgil on our part has something to do with it ; nevertheless, we would recommend this ' Gathering of the Clans ' even to those readers who have not yet made any particular acquaintance with Latin literature, and still more to those with whom a former familiarity has grown a little dim.

IN The Burlington Magazine for May the remarkable picture of ' The Annunciation ' by Masolino, discovered by Mr. Berenson fourteen years ago in the collection of Earl Wemyss, is reproduced for the first time, and serves as a hand- some frontispiece for the number. Sir Martin Conway has an article on Jacquemart de Hesdin, and attributes to him the miniatures of a Book of Hours in the Brussels Library (No. 11,060) which Mr. Roger Fry some years ago considered to be by Beauneveu. Extremely beautiful repro- ductions of Jacquemart's work accompany the article. A set of sixteenth-century vestments, recently separated and presented to .various exhibitions by Sir Charles and Lady Waldstein, are described and illustrated by Mr. C. E. Cecil Tattersall. They were shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum two years ago. Mr. G. F. Hill continues his ' Notes on Italian Medals,' and Mr. G. Leland Hunter describes some Scipio tapestries now in America, especially those made in Brussels after designs by Giulio Romano.


Some examples of prehistoric art are discussed by Prof. Baldwin Brown, and illustrations are supplied of engravings on the roof of Altamira cave, in Northern Spain, and other carvings. The history of painting in India has of late received much attention from European critics, and Signer Raphael Petrucci, in his article on Rajput painting, reproduces several illustrations to the ' Mahabharata ' and ' Ramayana.'

THE Shakespeare Tercentenary is being cele- brated at the John Rylands Library by an exhibi- tion of the poet's works, as well as those of his principal contemporaries. The Catalogue we have received shows how interesting is the collection. Mr. Guppy's prefatory note is a tempting invita- tion for a visit, for not only are early and original editions of the poet shown, but " the actual editions of the principal works which Shakespeare un- doubtedly had around him upon the shelves of his library, since they are the works from which he drew the foundation-plots and other material employed by him in the composition of his own plays." There is also a selection of works of " more general interest with which Shakespeare was certainly familiar," and a collection of school- books in use in Shakespeare's day. The copy of the First Folio in the possession of the Library is of special interest, as it was used by Lewis Theobald. The Catalogue contains a short biography, a chronological table of events, a list of writers included in the exhibits, and a selection of works for the study of Shakespeare. A por- trait a,nd sixteen facsimiles are supplied. The Catalogue, which forms a valuable souvenir, can be had for a shilling from Messrs. Longmans or Mr. Quaritch.

The Athenceum now appearing monthly, arrange- ments have been made whereby advertisements of posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to publish weekly, may appear in the intervening weeks in N. & Q.'


C. A. B., Folkestone (" Pop goes the weasel"). The origin and meaning of this phrase were pretty fully discussed in our Tenth Series at iii. 430, 491 ; iv. 54, 209 ; vii. 107. The weasel ' ' was explained as among other things a weasel-purse ; a tailor's implement; " vaisselle," i.e. plate; and as the animal " Pop goes the weasel ' ' being a dance with a figure which might be compared with the "pop- ping" of a weasel into its hole. At the third reference were printed in extenso the words of a song liaving this phrase for title ; but these hardly give the impression of being its origin. No conclusion was arrived at.

THE HON. KATHLEEN WARD (' Exemption from [ncome Tax,' ante, p. 348). MR. ARCHIBALD SPARKE writes from Bolton that on inquiry at the local Income Tax Office he is told that priests of the Church of Rome are not in England exempted from the payment of this tax.

F. S. (" Oh, that we two were maying "). The words are Kingsley's in ' The Saint's Tragedy.' There is more than one setting.

MR. A. H. MACLEAN. A long note on Charles Lamb's "One H " by MR. J. ROGERS REES will be found at 11 S. viii. 201.

F. DE H. L. Forwarded.